Inviting Schools in the United States of America and Hong Kong

Abstract

This article is a follow-up on a previous quantitative study (Steyn, 2007) which explored key aspects that influenced the effective implementation of Invitational Education (IE) in schools in the United States of America (US) and Hong Kong (HK). This is a qualitative study in which an appreciative inquiry (AI) is used to explain staff’s positive perceptions of professional development (PD) programs on IE and strategies in which IE can be implemented. The findings explain how the first three phases of AI: discovery, dreaming and design manifest in the study. The following categories and subcategories emerged: The best practices (The role of leadership: setting the tone; the role of teachers: necessity to be actively involved in IE); and Dreaming and designing: recommendations for effective strategies to implement IE.